this week at the fringe

well, you know that mr. mammoth is a music blog, but in case you're a little more cultured and like theater and spectacle as well as aural stimulation, here's my report on some shows i saw this week at the edinburgh festival. it was my birthday yesterday (woop woop), and i awarded myself the present of a ticket to the show that has been hyped beyond belief (and, possibly, beyond what it deserves) - i speak of none other than fuerzabruta. i also saw on danse, at the edinburgh international festival, and traces, playing at assembly rooms (where i am casually employed, get into shows for free, and presently biting off their free wifi). other shows of the week included best western and life in a marital institution, neither which were especially good or noteworthy.

on danse was very disappointing, considering how awesome its press photo was. the choreography was pretty incredible and humorous at the beginning of the show - frenetic, spastic dancing to calm, regulated classical music (all pieces by jean-phillipe rameau) - but it became rather tired less than halfway through the show. it was the uk premiere of the work by compagnie montalvo-hervieu, and a major centerpiece of the edinburgh international festival (different from the fringe, eif shows play only for a few days at most, and caters to an entirely different sort of audience). the crux of on danse was the projection screen that covered the entire back of the stage, on which hyperbolic and fantastic images were displayed, ones that the dancers on stage frequently interacted with. a fine trick, no doubt, and a finer one if i hadn't seen little howard recently. no, on danse's video was pretty neat, though also the source of their greatest shortcoming. the lighting of the show was simply atrocious. every performer had a line across their midsection, where the projector cut off at the bottom, a problem that could have easily been ameliorated with the addition of front lights, yet was not. the directors (mssrs. montalvo and hervieu) tried to inject a narrative of what dance is by inserting brief verbal sections at different points throughout the show, which, in reality, frequently served little purpose. on danse seemed crippled by its own potential - the images of elephants dancing on carpets was, once seen in context, deeply unsatisfying, a mere video trick, and one that was carried out without any of the physical exuberance of the dancing itself.

traces was an entirely different story. i see its poster every day, when i rush into assembly rooms (afraid of being late for the show i'm working on), which is now plastered with four- and five-star reviews, and i decided, one day last week, that i would go see it. so i did. it was pretty fucking cool. all heady lights and dank music (i'm not trying to sound like a stoner), and some of the more impressive acrobatic feats i've seen. the five person show is made up of people slightly older and younger than i, which really puts my inability to do a cartwheel in stark light. traces presents us with a emotionally and physically fragile setting, a veritable dystopia, into which these five kids are abruptly thrust. they mix work and play, catapulting their bodies every which way, performing from the pure joy and exhilaration of it - the pleasure they take it obvious every second of the show. interspersed with brief sketches - a member put in jail, a game show where the wrong answer results in death - traces is chock-full of darkness and desperation, sandwiched between amazing acrobatics that are all joy and light - dancing with a chintz sofa, or synchronized skateboarding. traces is visually stunning, a complete entanglement of the senses, and one of the rare shows that actually transports the viewer.

and now, fuerzabruta. if you're in edinburgh, you know that you cannot leave your flat without coming face to face with a flyer for this show - plastered on walls, billboards, buses, it is inescapable. also, very good. fuerzabruta is the second brainchild of the creators of de la guarda, a show that i know played in new york for many years, but one that i never went to (also, de la guarda is that rare phenomenon [fuerzabruta is as well] - a socio-cultural event without a wikipedia page). fuerzabruta's essential image is of a man running, and, indeed, it is a sight repeated several times throughout the show. lodged in the black tent, a self-designed space suited for the strangeness within, fuerzabruta is at times outlandish, at others a contradiction, but is most frequently amazing. after viewing fuerzabruta, one really gets a sense of what the term "total theater" actually means - not only does the show break the fourth wall, it breaks the first three as well. at the beginning, the audience is led in an empty, open space, demarcated most noticeably by four large pillars, light/sound/fog machine rigs that probably also serve as support for the tent. instinctively huddling in the middle, the crowd then parts, at the behest of the crew, for a wheeled structure - a skeletal metal frame with a stairway at one end - upon which a man runs, in a shirt and tie, on a moving walkway. he is shot once, then again, and after that, the show surrenders any attempt at narrative, choosing wisely to focus on the spectacle instead. fuerzabruta is a patchwork quilt made from a limited supply of fabric - despite the sheer beauty and originality of the work, too often were the most imaginative aspects of the piece recycled and reused, which begs the question of whether or not a narrative actually exists. the running man opens and closes the show - why? if fuerzabruta is not the kind of show you can ask that question of, then it behooves its director to imagine new elements of breathtaking splendor.

i don't want to give away fuerzabruta, in case you are in edinburgh, or are planning on seeing it at some point in the future, but i will answer two questions for you.

1. is it worth the appallingly high sum of £25 for a ticket? no.
2. is it pretty frickin cool? yes.

the thing that irked me and my date the most is that the show was only an hour long - we felt fleeced, to say the least. fuerzabruta positions itself as a part of the fringe festival, where most shows are an hour long, but by locating itself outside of the fringe (literally, in another city, leith), it consciously defies inclusion in the fringe - a troubled relationship. also, since this is a music blog, i feel compelled to note that i felt the music IN the show was excellent, but the pre- and post-show tunes were drab, old, and the very antithesis of what i felt the show to represent - something fresh, exciting, and not "intergalactic planetary" or "insane in the membrane." i can't guarantee that fuerzabruta is worth it -£25 is a lot of money, even for something as special and unique as this show is. and, despite my feelings of being let down by the length of the show, the reusing of original ideas so that they seem less original, and the appalling song selection by the djs, i fully and totally enjoyed fuerzabruta - it is really something i've never seen before, and am not likely to see again.

this is fuerzabruta's trailer:


photos courtesy of the edinburgh blog and beelzebub h disco.

i fucking love anticon.

i don't think it can be much more obvious than that. my love is newfound, however - i didn't start enjoying anticon. releases until march of this year - a shameful admission, possibly, but it hasn't been for lack of trying. for years previous, i gave multiple anticon. artists multiple listens, without any of them resonating. why? was the first anticon. artist i listened to, only because the person who first reviewed his sanddollars ep for my college radio station was absolutely smitten with it. needless to say, i was not. but ears mature, thank god, and mine are evidently at the age where acerbic beats, stream-of-consciousness ramblings, and utterly insensible combinations of sounds and words are exactly what the doctor ordered. for years, i had looked at the cLOUDDEAD lp in my record store in wonder - what a strange name for a band, i thought. well, no shit, it's a strange fucking band. to be fair, cLOUDDEAD isn't on anticon, though that seems to be more of an accident than anything else, as all three members of the group (doseone, why?, and odd nosdam) are independently signed to the label. anyway, so cLOUDDEAD's self-titled full length had stared back at me from the shelves of my local record shop, and, finally, earlier this year, i gave in. since then, basically, it's been non-stop. 13 & God, telephone jim jesus (who i'd also been interested in for a while, because of this) - a friend turned me on to sole, (whose recent poly.sci.187 is excellent), subtle (another technically "non-anticon" band featuring doseone and jel, two of anticon's most prominent artists), buck 65 (whose 2006 ep dirty work is available in its entirety for free) - so frequently it seems that anticon. is more than a label - more than the collective that they call themselves, even - anticon. is (dare i say it?) a state of mind. few labels have anticon.'s commitment to genre-busting, to encouraging such dramatic and lucid reimaginings of hip hop.

which brings me to two pieces of "news," called such because they are definitely not, but are to me. the first is that anticon has a podcast, and a bitching one at that. it seems to be updated with no regularity at all - sj esau dropped a mix early in july, and dax pierson (of subtle) did on in april, but before that was a christmas mix, a september one, and two from may 2006 - a collection of unreleased tracks by jel and a pre-album teaser by alias. my limited and irregular internet access means i've only had the chance to download one of the podcasts, and my appetite has been whetted.

the second piece of news has me close to salivating (not just because i haven't eaten lunch) - there's a new telephone jim jesus album coming out! really, i am so fucking excited for this - the track available for DOWNLOAD, "a mouth of fingers," is just as full-bodied and layered as anything off a point too far to astronaut, and is even more exuberant in its complexity. there are times, as a writer, when you are just thrust into the verbal shadows by what others have written on the same topic, and that is the case with anticon.'s description of the work - "a multihued textile of living song that can be admired both for its constituent parts—mini opuses with aural narratives unto themselves—and as a subtly evolving whole." whether TJJ's new album deserves such lauding remains to be seen - anywhere out of the everything doesn't come out until september 25 - a date that is turning into one of the most promising tuesdays of the year.

normally, i hate things that are just available for streaming, but this is most definitely better than nothing -

telephone jim jesus - "a mouth of fingers" from anywhere out of the everything

UPDATE: paper thin walls has "a mouth of fingers" available for download! read the interview here, and enjoy the direct link to the mp3 here.

some thoughts on britain

i moved in to my new flat in edinburgh last week, but with work and everything else, it's taken a while to set up. we got a tv the other day, and i sat down and watched some of it last night. i'm embarrassed to say what i sat through (the scorpion king), but i actually learned a few things - not from the rock, just from the adverts. two especially struck me, not because i was actually watching them at the time, but because i recognized the melodious strains that accompanied their attempts to sell their vile products. i first looked up during what turned out to be a sainsbury's ad, as i was filled with "light & day" and the desire to "reach for the sun." apparently, sainsbury's has a history of using the 'spree - the same song - for christmas some years back, in an advert with tv chef jamie oliver. i can't find the one i saw last night on youtube, so you'll just have to trust me on this one, considering "light & day"'s own history of appearing in unlikely places. still, it was most surprising to me, considering the most "indie" commercials in america have been volkswagen's over the past few years - from "pink moon" to "either way" - while respectable (more nick drake albums sold after the cabrio ad than had in the preceding thirty years), major advertisers using songs from niche bands is rather unknown in america. apparently, not so in britain, for mere minutes later, this came on. while i was not a fan of the album, there is no mistaking "it overtakes me" for anything else (also, it was mystics' best song). at war with the mystics did not get half of the critical or public acclaim that yoshimi received, so, in a way, it's strange to hear this song in an advert (a beck's one, no less), though, i must admit, it works rather well. the point, however, is the same as before - how often do you hear "indie" bands in commercials? you don't, generally. anyway, just an observation of a cultural difference where the brits obviously have one up on us americans.


the polyphonic spree - "light & day / reach for the sun"

so, if you've battled your way through that much-too-dense collection of links, here's a paragraph that should be much simpler to swallow. here's one link. it's about the itunes festival, which was held in london last month. now, you may ask yourself - why in london? isn't america good enough for california-based apple? well, i can't answer definitively, but i think it probably isn't. bitches. anyway, channel 4 replayed a segment last night (again with the tv!), which featured kasabian (gag), amy winehouse, and remi nicole (new s/s, mediocre). obviously, my eyes were all for amy, who was MOST disappointing. the controversy/ discussion around her has been pretty non-stop for months, and it was obviously with good reason. she seemed to be on more drugs than this guy, and the two songs we saw - "tears dry on their own" and "back to black" - were just as devoid of soul as amy herself seemed. she stared blankly, she sang mindlessly, there was nothing in her performance that reminded me of what i had been so excited about, back when i heard "rehab" for the first time. it's actually depressing - she's obviously not coping with fame and if she doesn't get some help soon, she's going to be as much of a butt for jokes for the rest of her career as pete doherty. i hope she gets it.

amy winehouse - "tears dry on their own"

photo by robin lingwood.

caribou - melody day

this video has been making the rounds, but i like it so much, i want to post it here. "melody day" is the first single from caribou's upcoming album andorra, to be released on the 21st of this month, and the video was filmed on the beautiful beaches of sweden (who knew sweden had beaches?), right outside ingmar bergman's backyard. "melody day" is the first live-action caribou video i've seen, and it's fucking amazing. before andorra comes out, i want to do a caribou/manitoba retrospective, with particular emphasis on the marino dvd and ep, as they are so frequently overlooked. personally, i don't think snaith can ever top up in flames, and i blame "handsome" dickweed manitoba for killing the beauty that was manitoba, that shithead (manitoba isn't even his real last name!).

in any event, here's "melody day" for download and the video. the song is good but not great, but the video is goddamn superb. i'm really psyched for his show next month.

caribou - "melody day." pre-order andorra here.

what i'm up to

hey guys -

i owe you an apology for not explaining myself completely - i've had a busy week and no reliable internet access (i'm in a bar right now), which has made it rather difficult to write, and even harder to post. i'm due to get internet in a week or so, but this bar is actually at my place of employment, so i'll be able to update the ole mammoth more regularly. i'm currently at the edinburgh fringe festival, a massively huge international dance/theater/comedy/music festival, so i won't be in new york for any shows until october (missing the iron & wine show by one fucking night!). that being said, i'm trying to make it to as many shows as possible while i'm here, but no guarantees. i'm keeping my eye on the calendar, so there might be more upcoming shows than planned (i just noticed dj a-trak is spinning the kanye afterparty - definitely going if i get a chance). anyway, stay tuned.

if you happen to be in edinburgh, here's a quick list of what i've seen so far with * recommendations:
little howard and the magic pencil of life and death*
the book club*
russell kane 1/2*
talk of the fest with paul provenza (different guests every night, but it kinda sucked last night).



i'm looking forward to songs about vaginas and trying to save up for fuerzabruta, which looks awesome.

who needs english? - golem

english is totally overrated. who gives a shit that over 600 million people speak it? it's totally unnecessary. who needs english? is yet another feature from the ever-fertile brain of mr. mammoth - a feature devoted to bands that do not perform in english. this includes artists who are not english speakers, sing in languages that are not english, or whose music is solely instrumental, and is not from an english-speaking heritage. who needs english? is not a feature about "world music" - personally, i really dislike the term, and think that's its far too overused/abused. who needs english? is a feature about bands i like that don't use english. end of story. on to golem.

the first time i heard of golem was when music. for-robots posted a list of their recommended mp3s from the sxsw 2007 lineup, which included "warsaw is khelm" by golem. i can't recall why i picked golem to download - maybe i liked the name, or i already knew they were opening for balkan beat box, and i wanted to get a flavor of their sound. either way, "warsaw is khelm" absolutely captivated me - honest to goodness klezmer, the kind that a christian who wished he had a jewish mother craves. and though "warsaw is khelm" is (mostly) in english, the fact that their songs are usually in yiddish, ladino, or other slavic tongues sweetens the pot (and guarantees them entry into the oh-so-scrupulously chosen "who needs english?" feature). you'll remember how taken i was with them after the bbb show, and i picked up a copy of their recent fresh off boat, afterwards. golem's website boasts that the album is "thirteen tracks in five languages," a serious feat for a sad uni-linguist like myself.

now for some background: golem is a blistering six-piece from brooklyn (where else?), who have the unique ability to boast that none of their instruments requires electricity. from frontwoman's annette ezekiel's accordion, to alicia jo rabins's violin, curtis hasselbring's trombone, taylor bergren-chrisman's standup bass, or frontman aaron diskin's tambourine/vodka drinking, golem can rock it anywhere (and they do). names like hasselbring or bergren-chrisman don't really instantly summon visions of shetls or yarmulkes, but their gentile heritage is no impediment to golem's pure and honest klezmer - they even have their own hora. watch out, though - this isn't your rabbi's klezmer.

fresh off boat is golem's fourth release and their third full-length, so they are no fly-by-night sensation. i have no had the pleasure of hearing any of their other releases (half of which are sold out, alas), but if they're anything like fresh off boat, they're fucking phenomenal. golem revitalizes what is already an active and exciting style of music, especially in songs like "bublichki," "the rent," or their ubiquitous hit, "warsaw is khelm." "bublichki" is my personal favorite for two reasons: first of all, it fucking rocks. rabins's bow races across the strings while hasselbring's trombone bleats behind it, a fierce chorus that alternates with a provocative and sensual increase in tempo, lead by diskin's rough and guttural yiddish verses. it is impossible not to have the rhythm get inside your body - "bublichki" was one of the crowd's dancingest songs in their set - no mean feat for a relatively unknown warmup band. my second favorite thing about "bublichki" is diskin's brief english interlude (i know, who needs it?, but at least i can get the jokes that way), where he laments the state of his family - his mother is a cleaning woman, his father a drunk, he sells bagels on cold street corners while his sister whores herself out nearby, though his little brother is probably the best off - "he picks the pockets of hipsters on the L train."

while golem's vigor and intensity in their songwriting is not constant, the high level of skill and ability is, and their multidimensionality is no small asset. every member of golem seems to be a fucking virtuoso, and it shows. the rhythms and melodies are complex and interwoven, often abruptly changing mid-song, but never faltering. golem plays dancing and drinking music, and the proper way to enjoy it is to do both.

they have a show in a few days in new york - an excellent lineup with the welsh sensations los campesinos!, deleon (who were the first opener at the bbb show) and nous non plus, and you can buy tickets here. i will obviously not be going, as i'm in scotland for the duration of the fringe festival, but you should.

golem - ">bublichki", "golem hora"

buy fresh off boat from the not-for-profit jdub records here.

worth spending money on, volume tres

if you've been playing the home game (and if you're reading this blog, i'd say the likelihood of that is fairly high), then what i have to say is not going to surprise you. but just in case you've been out of the loop for the past several months, here's a real shocker: you should go out to the store right now, and fork over some paltry dollars for the incredible menomena sophomore album, friend and foe. until sometime around christmas last year, menomena was a name new to me, and it was only from a brief stereogum post that i learned their name and got a taste of the quiet excitement that surrounded their second release. the great reception it received from pitchfork (the first BNM nod of the year) only sweetened the deal, and drove me to undertake the safest option for anyone hearing about a new band - i downloaded friend and foe.

oh, the blissful ease of torrents! the typing of letters, a little hunting, a few clicks, the brief wait, and voila! an album. the problem (for me, at least), is convincing myself of the need to listen to these albums that i've just acquired for next-to-nothing. friend and foe came out just as i was getting acquainted with the blogosphere, and i hadn't been quick enough on the draw to get any menomena mp3s, and i had no idea what to expect from the album. so friend and foe lingered in my library for some months, until, struck by the dreaded i-need-something-new-to-listen-to disease, i put it on my shuffle. at first, i was unimpressed. the only song that caught my ear was "the pelican," after which i usually passed on to another album. before you call me overhasty ("the pelican" is friend and foe's second track), et me offer a few words in my defense. despite the egalitarian simplicity of torrents, they are not without their own flaws, as i discovered after my purchase of friend and foe (mr. mammoth is no hypocrite). what i must have downloaded was a pre-release version of the album, a slightly smudged precursor of the final cut. among its differences (which also included different takes of "the pelican" and "air aid," as well as a alternate title for "my my"), was a complete shakeup of the album's middle tracks. it still opened with "muscle n' flo" and ended with the "evil bee" - "ghostship" - "west" trilogy - which, ultimately, probably made the album less accessible at first, but didn't alter its overall excellence in the slightest. so, even though many of the tracks that preceded "the pelican" in my bootleg version are now among my favorites, none of them really captured my attention during initial listens. a month after friend and foe's dry run in my shuffle, i returned to the album, for the simple reason that "the pelican" was inextricably stuck in my head, and i know of no other remedy for that than to listen to the song, which i did. since then (now that i listen not only to "the pelican," but the songs that surround it), friend and foe has, basically, remained on my regular album rotation. i can't get enough of it - and if you haven't given it a chance yet, now is the time to do so. for its enduring quality, sheer brilliance, and simple audacity, i name friend and foe the third album that is worth spending money on. read on for why.

there are, by my count, four best tracks on friend and foe: "air aid," "the pelican," "running," and "evil bee." this last one is my absolute favorite, primarily because of the lyrics (and bitchin' saxophone parts). "oh to be a machine / oh to be wanted, to be useful" croons guitarist/pianist brent knopf, a declaration of such stunning simplicity and earnestness that it wins you over immediately. "evil bee," like most menomena songs, is an ADD hodgepodge of sounds, stitched together piecemeal, almost haphazardly, but striking in its forthrightness. there is nothing hidden in menomena songs: there are only surprises, like the recurring maracas and the abrupt saxophone notes, used (at first) to punctuate the end of phrases (rather than in a leading role, as it is used in songs like "boyscout'n"), before it blends seamlessly into their soundscape. menomena's work lends itself to ordinarily foolish words like "soundscapes" very well - there are few better ways to describe their delightfully arbitrary sound matching, of adding melodies for the sheer cheek of it. they recklessly bend all rules of song structure, carelessly discarding chourses when they are not needed, or creating climaxes merely from a repetition of phrases, and then pulling the carpet out from underneath them, musically speaking. one song from friend and foe has more variety than most albums, and the work's quirkiness never bogs it down - unlike some progressive bands, who try to lump too much imagination into one song, menomena's inventiveness is almost sparse, always gently, lovingly putting song pieces together, never bulldozing their creativity down our ears.

one of my favorite things about menomena is the harmonies. while knopf and bassist/ saxophonist justin harris generally front the band, often trading off song by song, all three lend their voices to the others', fleshing out the vocals to the point where it is almost impossible to tell which parts are real and which are studio-produced. this is especially true on songs like "air aid," "rotten hell" (those two are tied for "cleverest song title," because of the way they are sung), and "wet and rusting." for menomena, the voice is not merely a device for delivering lyrics (which are highly sophisticated for such a young band), it is an instrument in and of itself, to a degree that is rarely heard elsewhere. in addition to the subtlety and nuances of their vocals, menomena also has some seriously exceptional drumming. i remember being struck by danny seim's drumming when i saw menomena some weeks ago - his energy and intensity far outstripped that of his bandmates, at least in terms of sweat. seim was dripping by the end of their set, the natural result of his labor. it is rare that i notice drums (beyond the cursory acknowledgment), but his drum lines are more than just underlying reinforcement, or a rhythm keeper, or any role that drums far too frequently function as - they are, like menomena's voices, an equal part of the music, adding its own style to the overall mix, never staying static but always fluctuating with the circumstances, fluid and versatile.

menomena's trademark is unexpectedness, a trait that is obvious from the first track, "muscle 'n flo." a jagged, abrupt guitar interrupts drawn out, stately notes and delicate piano, alternating between serenity and anxiety. "muscle 'n flo" is also one of the few songs that has something like verses and a bridge - many of their songs are just laid bare, stripped of pretense and false modesty. they stand proud without bowing to conventionality, one of the album's most endearing traits. i also find menomena's lyricism to be remarkable - it goes far beyond the wistfulness of gibbard or the historicity of meloy, disdaining continuity or even sense, focusing all their energy on turning clever/endearing phrases like "if only jesus would wash my feet" or "rain is falling through the floor " or "cover your ears / cover your eyes / cover your mouth / silence / blindness / tasteless violence," putting a new twist on the "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" aphorism. however, their best lyricism cannot be taken out of context - like their voices, or drumming, or any other instrument in their arsenal, menomena's lyrics are another layer of songsmithing.

on "air aid," harris sings about "people of the future," and that's exactly who the album is about. it's not a big stretch to say menomena is a little too cool for school - their rhythms, effects, and sheer bizarreness can't possibly have come from the same era as the black eyed peas, yet here it is. i don't doubt that harris, knopf, and seim are not a little startled by the immense acclaim friend and foe has received, though they shouldn't be. the word "pop" has far too many negative connotations right now, but, still, friend and foe is distinctly that: it straddles the line between the past and future of pop, and it is little wonder that people clamor to it, singing its praises. definitely WSMO, definitely awesome.

menomena - "the pelican," "wet and rusting." buy friend and foe here. live photo from nailgun.